1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a holder for mounting a guide rail on a ceiling, particularly a guide rail for lifts for handicapped people. The holder comprises a carrier plate defining a plane and has mounting holes for attaching the carrier plate to the ceiling and guide rail holding extensions projecting into, and engaging, the guide rail. Lock screws clamp the guide rail to the holder.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A guide rail holder of this type has been disclosed in published British Patent Application No. 2,216,857. Such holders are required to affix guide rails, particularly for lifts for handicapped people, in a weight-bearing manner to the ceiling. Rollers of the lift engage the guide rail and can be displaced along the rail. For example, such guide rails may extend in dependence of the requirements along the ceiling between bath tub, wash basin, toilet and a bed, for instance.
Such guide rail holders satisfactorily serve their support function for the guide rail but have disadvantages with respect to the fixing of the holder on the ceiling (by dowelling and bolting). In this respect, it must be taken into consideration that several carrier plates must be suitably spaced along the guide rail, which requires accurate marking on the ceiling for each carrier plate so that the dowels may be in alignment with the mounting holes in the carrier plates. It may happen that a reinforcing beam cast into the ceiling is encountered when it is attempted to drill a dowel hole, which precludes the provision of a hole at this location. Furthermore, since the guide rails frequently require a curved path, the carrier plates with their guide rail holding extensions projecting into the guide rail grooves must have a sufficient tolerance with respect to the guide rail grooves to enable the holding extensions to be displaceable in the grooves in a curved path of the guide rail. If such relatively large tolerances between carrier plates and guide rail are to be avoided, correspondingly shorter carrier plates must be used.